How do small garages in Germany cope with Teslas?

According to an article in the German trade magazine kfz-betrieb, the German Association of Motor Trades and Repairs (ZDK) has complained to the European Commission because Tesla is denying independent garages easy and non-discriminatory access to repair and maintenance information and to diagnostic and programming software.

According to the association, Tesla only grants access to this information and the software to its partners. In the opinion of the ZDK, this behaviour violates the provisions of the EU type-approval regulation. An answer from the EU Commission is still pending.

In the German comments below the article, there were some interesting observations from independent garages themselves. Some expressed general resentment at electric cars and/or Tesla generally. Others simply expressed their concerns for the survival of their businesses, saying that small auto repair workshops will go the same way as television repair shops or photo developing services – simply because electric cars require far less maitenance than combustion engines that have around 400 more moving parts.

Another commenter suggested Telsa was not sharing the information in order to better control how their vehicles were kept in shape saying: “you can’t force Tesla to give free garages the permission to work on the cars if they don’t comply with Tesla standards in service and quality assurance.”

kfz-betrieb.vogel.de (in German)